Wind Chaser Chronicles: Conceived in Fire
by vaguekiwi
Summary: A thief and a spy drawn by fate, a child born under a new year. Within her first breaths are greater powers than demons and angels could dream of. Book 1.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Hi guys, if you read _Shadows of the Pantheon_ this is a lot like that but for my NEW character. So some chill, slow, storytime backstory. What's the difference? Well, turned out I hated playing a mage so Alusa didn't last that long. But I'm pretty excited for this one so I _think_ there's a good chance I will create a sequel (s?) based on my playthrough. Anyway tell me what you think, criticism is my friend!

Thanks for reading,

Grace

 **Chapter 1**

It is not uncommon for demons to mistake one another for angels.

Lailisse tried not to let her feet break the frost on the ground. She breathed softly and slid one foot in front of the other, gliding on the ice. Whoever was following her was skilled.

Skilled yes, but clumsy in the awkward gangly way only a man could be. The frozen grass creaked and broke under his feet, his sinew and muscle rubbed along his clothes. Lailisse seemed merely a ghost on the ground, the wind whipping her sleeves and scarves into a frenzy of black venom.

She eased further along the ground, ten paces, fifteen, then twenty. At twenty-five paces when he had closed their gap with his greater stride, Lailisse spun. His knife came up to meet hers and they clashed, metal ringing as they broke apart.

"Who are you?" She barked, leaping forward and throwing him to the ground. She pressed the tip of her dagger to his throat and he coughed and wriggled beneath her.

"None of your business!" He snarled, heaving to throw her off. Lailisse dug her knees into his ribs and slashed the top of his forehead so he howled and blood glinted in the moonlight.

"You speak to a spy of Daggerfall! Tell me who you are or I reserve every right to cut out your throat!"

"Highborn Breton spies!" The man cursed, spat in her eye, and glared at her. Lailisse lifted her dagger but he jerked away and growled, "Aversar! My name is Aversar! Ought to be below someone so high as yourself to squabble with a member of Skyrim's Thieves Guild!"

"The Thieves Guild," Lailisse swore and lifted her knees off of him, standing quickly. "I have no business angering you or your people. Be gone from here and leave your mission for tomorrow night."

"My heist takes precedence," Aversar snarled, clambering to his feet. "Go drink yourself sick on the richest wine in the city and come back tomorrow."

Lailisse laughed a sharp haughty sound and crossed her arms. "You are a fool," She spat. "To think some petty thievery should go before my political missions."

"Your sneaking, spying, and murdering?" Aversar shook his head. "Do not flatter yourself woman, you know the power of my guild so step aside or I'll cut you down."

Lailisse grew quiet and turned to look through the trees, toward the stoic building and grand fence before them. "Perhaps we're both stupid to think of breaking into such a place," She breathed.

"We both know why we do it," Aversar rumbled. "Your secrets or my riches"

"It may be better for us to go together," She murmured, "if it would bring us both out alive."

Aversar chuckled, the sound bitter and cold to match the harsh winds of Skyrim. He was very much a Nord, Lailisse thought. "Thalmor Embassy: locked and unbroken for decades, now two successful heists in one night."

"We haven't been successful yet," Lailisse cautioned.

"Please milady," Aversar smiled and started up the mountain again, moving at a rugged, pace. "We both know there's not a force in Nirn that could stand between a member of the Thieves Guild and one of High Rock's spymasters."

Lailisse thought on his words then nodded, following him. The cold wind and still trees washed over them, silence only broken by the ice cracking beneath Aversar's feet.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Lailisse thought, later, she would have liked for there to be some action. Some excitement. An alarm, a battle.

But there was none of that.

Aversar was right. They were the best of the best, it was just short of easy for them to break into the embassy. Aversar's target was simple, he snatched as many septims and as much silver as his pockets could carry. Lailisse led him through the quiet hallways, to the courtyard, ghosting across the grass to the Solar. It was all quiet, still, only heartbeats and quick breaths. In the solar there were two guards, both silenced with no more than a mewl. Lailisse bent beside the chest in the back and fumbled with her knife and her picks, twisting impatiently at the tight lock.

"Let me try," Aversar murmured and bent beside her.

"No!" Lailisse snapped, "This is my mission!"

"The guards are dead, at least let me find some light." He declared, and she heard him creaking away from her. She broke her sixth pick when he came back with a rusted kerosene lantern which he held aloft over the chest. The heat flared out to warm her brittle hands, and she sighed audibly.

Aversar grinned beside her and she opened her mouth to snap at him. But she didn't, she turned back to the chest and twisted the lock until it clicked. She looked up at him, a beaming smile erupting across her face.

That was the first time she saw his face in the light.

He was a Nord, as she thought. Light eyes, sandy hair, pale skin like the snow, he smiled past a thin layer of scruff on his neck and urged, "Open it."

Lailisse nodded and tugged herself back to the present, opening the chest and rifling through its papers. She selected four dossiers, shut the chest and stood up.

"Let's go," She told Aversar breathlessly, "quickly, we need to get out."

Aversar blew out the lamp and the embrace of darkness swallowed them again. They left the Embassy with the same silence they entered.

When the alarm bells rang in the new light of sunrise Lailisse and Aversar were gone. They were down the mountain and wrapped in alcohol and heavy blankets in an inn.

Skyrim winds remained cold even in the light of day. When Aversar eased himself out of bed and into the cool air inside he stumbled across the hall. He knocked gently on the door to her room, eased it open when she did not answer

Her bed was empty, the room entirely untouched. Aversar sighed and leaned in the doorway, thinking of thick black hair and deep blue eyes, high cheekbones and a voice like bells ringing in the Temple of the Divines.

He straightened and turned away, shutting the door quietly behind him. He chuckled quietly to himself, "you always knew it," He mumbled, "come on now, no getting weepy. The life of a thief is a life of loneliness." He returned to his room, packed his bags with a numb weight in his limbs. "I ought to get back and report to Gallus anyway."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

They met again in Evening Star. All but an accident.

Four months since the infamous break-in at the Thalmor Embassy. A Khajiit was tried and hung as responsible, Elenwen simply had to keep face. Aversar returned to Riften and tried not to think about that night, about the woman whose name he did not know.

The cities were rife with celebration in Evening Star, seeking joy and celebration and mead in wake of the cold and the approaching new year. Aversar milled in the square in Riften, taking a swig and passing his bottle to Delvin. Riften had the heart to put up a few banners but no one dared to organize dancing or music in this city. They sat on the stone wall facing the Temple of Mara, going back and forth on dares to swim a length of Lake Honrich.

Neither of them would do it. The lake was nearly frozen this time of year anyway, and it would more or less be a death sentence to jump in. But Aversar found it an amusing way to pass the long hours.

"Really think you'll leave eh?" Delvin asked.

"Suppose," Aversar sighed. "Can't help it Delvin, nothing's going right anymore. And now that Gallus is dead," He snatched the mead from Delvin, took a long swallow then shook his head. "Gallus got me here, Karliah was my friend, they just haunt me in this city. Anyway Mercers not fond of me he'll find a way to ditch me in the bottom of Honrich sooner or later."

"Suppose that's a good excuse to swim it," Delvin barked and they both laughed. "Where will you go then?"

"North, work independently. Don't worry I'll stay out of the guild's business, Mercer won't even know I'm there."

"Hah," Delvin chuckled, "I'll keep Mercer off your tail."

"Thank you," They sat a little while longer in stillness and Aversar stood.

"I'll be going Delvin," He turned and they clasped hands. "Tell Brynjolf and Niruin farewell."

"You be careful," Delvin grunted and Aversar turned away. He thought, pacing across the quiet streets toward the city gates, it would be strange to work away from the guild. No back up, no fire in the Flagon and no warm bed waiting for him in the cistern. He would need to be twice as careful, twice as prepared, and wary of the guild as well as the guards.

Aversar stepped out from the gates, turned to look at the lake and the spindly branches of the aspen trees. He thought it was good that the lake was frozen and the trees were empty of their vibrant leaves, it made it easier to leave without picturing the gold beauty of the Rift in Mid Year.

"You would truly leave your guild?"

Aversar twisted around, hand falling to the hilt of his dagger. He peered into the darkness, hardly daring to believe the voice he thought he heard. She stepped forward then, into the dim lights of the torches.

"Aversar," The Breton spymaster from Dagerfall stared at him with all the dark grace and shuddering fabrics of when they met. He wanted to step forward, to grab her arms and claim her. But he stilled himself, because he could not explain what sort of mad infatuation clung to him.

"Why did you come here?" He asked.

"I traveled all of Skyrim for my work." She said.

"How does your work bring you here the night I leave my home and my family?"

"The Thalmor do not forgive. They killed my employer."

"And now?"

"Now I am free. Is it strange the first place I thought to come was Riften? To find you?"

Aversar did not say anything. He did not know what sort of passion drove him toward this woman. He never believed in fate, love at first sight was for children. But the thrill of invading the embassy together, their breath close, her skin glowing rose in the light of their lantern. It wrapped itself around him and did not release him, hounding him through every shill, lock, and heist since.

"What is your name?" He asked.

"Lailisse." Lailisse said. "Would you come with me?"

"Where will we go? What will we do?"

"We can go anywhere. We are free, we answer to no one and we return nowhere. Think about it. Deep down, it's what every thief needs."

Aversar thought about it, he knew what she meant. It was the temptation of that raw unadulterated freedom just within reach, whispering to him in the click of the tree branches, standing in front of him in the form of a slim Breton alive with courage, spirit, recklessness.

"You're a fool," Aversar smile wanly, "To be so eager for danger,"

"Are you telling me no?" Lailisse smiled thin, sharp teeth and leaned forward, Aversar tried not to shudder with the weight of her footsteps coming toward him. Her chin thrust upward toward his face.

"We're thieves," Aversar chuckled, "We need danger as much as we need air."

Lailisse grinned wider and turned slightly away from him, legs poised as if to take off and run in the skeletal forest.

"Are you telling me yes, then?"

She ran, light and swift and straight away from him. She left her question open, his answer free. Aversar did not think. He followed her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

They fell in love suddenly, over a path of four years. Was it when they met, when they saw each other in the light of the lantern, when Aversar followed her into the night of the Rift? When they fell asleep curled in a cave still wet with the blood of wolves? When Lailisse slipped in the Karth River and Aversar gathered juniper berries for their lunch while she dried off?

They never believed in destiny until they met, and then fate wound their hearts. Neither could explain this passion, this feeling, the intrigue. At first it was infatuation, but then it molded into something soft, aching, real.

She kissed him under the seafoam light of Skyrim's aurora with the cold air forcing its way into their core.

Three months later he lifted away the waistband of her pants under the cool night air. She twisted so the dying embers of the fire lit the pale stretch of her bare thigh.

"Aversar," She whispered his name, her fingers crawled into his hair and pressed on his back.

"Yes?" He asked, hands still on her hips.

Lailisse stayed still a moment then whispered: "Yes."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** _Hey guys! Just want to drop a note the home described in this chapter the mod: The Rookery Spy/Thief/Bard Loft by Elianora. It's one of my favorite player home mods, and I'm really excited to use it this playthrough._

 _Thanks for reading and have a good one,_

 _Grace_

 **Chapter 5**

They slept on the roadsides, hunted in the trees, and stole in the cities. Life was freedom. Life was reckless. They built a loft in the eaves of Solitude. An aerie in one of the high towers on the eastern edge of the city. On the roof they raised a garden of sweet juniper and tart dragon's tongue. Inside they adorned the tower with bright paintings, heavy cloaks, a warm stove, and vaults full of plunder. Their life was dunked in fawning and glamour, their passion hot against Skyrim's cold air, their lives vivid in the bleak colors of snow and gray skies.

Lailisse woke when they banged on the door. She listened while holding her breath, unwilling to admit to life in their home. They pounded again and someone shouted,

"Solitude guard! Open the door!"

Lailisse rolled over, shook Aversar awake. They left behind everything but for two purses of gold. When the guards broke down the door the bed was unmade, the tower empty.

Lailisse and Aversar fled across the roads of Haafingar.

Lailisse smiled from sheer exhaustion, "I think our time in Skyrim is over Aversar,"

Aversar chuckled and fought to keep up with her lithe step. "Where will we go?"

"Every skilled thief retires to their own quiet." She told him, she squeezed his hand which was cold in the night air and passed warmth between them. "You have shown me your home. It's time I showed you mine."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Aversar and Lailisse did not travel all the way to Daggerfall. They crossed Skyrim's western border into High Rock and curved northwest to settle in the mountains outside Fahrun. They built a sturdy wooden home, hunted with bows and chopped wood for fires. The excitement of crime faded to a contentment of peace, an occasional coin purse swiped in the market, a slight of hand in the store.

Lailisse grew wary at the pain in her breasts and her queasiness in the mornings. She looked at Aversar in the rising sunlight, placed a hand on her abdomen and pursed her lips. At dinner she ate three times her usual helping, Aversar smiled and teased her, but did not question or argue. Lailisse sighed in the evening, and at night tiptoed from bed to gorge on more food from the kitchen.

She ate ceaselessly, desperate to add to the weight in her legs and her stomach before Aversar would notice. He did not mind, she could eat whatever she wanted as far as he saw. They would always be able to get more. He asked her one night, hands tight on her back, "Are you well?"

"I am well, Aversar." She promised him, then excused herself to eat a roll of bread and cold venison.

It worked four and a half months. She stumbled into the wilderness to vomit and sobbed to keep down what little she could. She hugged her stomach and cursed the love expanding in her heart, but she could not hide it forever.

One night as he kissed her, one hand rolling along her chest he let his fingers fall. The pressure of his hand on her expanding stomach made the child jerk and he froze. Lailisse and Aversar both grew still but for the wriggling life inside of her.

He pressed back, the child kicked. Lailisse grimaced and felt tears well in her eyes. He rolled back, away from her so he sat on his knees.

"Forgive me," Lailisse cried, "I was frightened."

Aversar blinked at her, traced his eyes down to her stomach, then took her cheeks in his hands and kissed her. Deep, aching, needing, whole.

"I love you," He whispered against her mouth, "I love you both."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Lailisse could not fathom the ache of childbirth. Aversar held her hand in the bed, the doctor from Fahrun knelt at her feet, she screamed and dug her nails into Aversar's palm until he bled.

The agony drained on for hours upon hours of anguish and the order to push. Lailisse gulped desperately for air and thought that no mortal could inflict more pain than a baby. And then, when she finally felt the relief of emptiness inside her she strained to hear the cry of her child.

Instead she heard the doctor: "Mara preserve us."

Their baby did not take in a single breath. He was born silent and still, cold in Lailisse's arms.

Aversar held her close night upon night, neither sleeping, both struggling to grip the hole carved out of their hearts. Lailisse sobbed into his chest, crushed under the realization that there was one pain worse than childbirth.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

It was six months before Lailisse let Aversar touch her again. The hole in her chest felt too hollow to associate his body with anything but their lost child. After three months she felt the pressure on her breasts and the vividness of her dreams and she ran outside to Aversar.

"Julianos has blessed us!" She cried and threw her arms around him. He grinned and kissed her but after four months Lailisse lay screaming in her bed, clutching her stomach as the new life leaked out of her in blood and water.

There were only six weeks between the first and second miscarriage. Twelve months between the second miscarriage and the second still birth. Nine months between the second and third still birth. A third miscarriage three months after their third empty corpse was born.

Six children in four years.

Lailisse grew listless and empty, she sat often with her arms wrapped around a hollow stomach trying to assemble the shredded remains of her heart. She stared at the sun and the woods and the beauty of the mountains. She tried to remember a time when joy claimed her heart. She felt only quiet and lost.

Aversar watched her and looked at the three mounds behind the house and rubbed the tears from his eyes.

He went into town and then into the woods. He came to her in the evening, when all of High Rock was covered in molten gold so the earth itself seemed to glow. He took her in his arms, she managed a wan smile where before she would have squealed, kicked, and fought back. She let him carry her but he didn't take her to the house. He took her around to the backyard and into the trees.

"Close your eyes," He whispered and she did. He carried her and then laid her down and she opened her eyes. Purple flowers glowed silver in the fading sun. Blue flowers flashed like gemstones. Red flowers became the bright crimson of blood, an assurance of life.

For a while they both sat. Then they ate a small dinner in a content sort of quiet. And then she laid down, he stroked her hair, kissed her forehead. Kissed her lips and throat, touched her arms. She didn't stop him so he eased away their clothes and the sun burst over them and the flowers lit and they were engulfed in a light as pure as dragon fire.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Lailisse didn't respond to the wriggling in her stomach. She continued to work, took her trips to the market, helped Aversar with the wood and the hunting. Aversar never once mentioned the child, they laid together and ignored the bulge between them, Lailisse resigned herself to the nine month growth.

When she felt the first pains while laboring to chop wood she stood up straight. She waited, and then she waddled inside and laid down on the bed. Aversar came back from Fahrun and found her in the bedroom. He sat beside her and they talked until the pain became too great and then they waited in silence. They called for no doctor, and eventually Lailisse spread her legs wide, heaved, and leaned forward with a knife in hand.

She sliced the cord connecting them and then fell back onto her pillow, weeping. Aversar stood and came to sit beside her, running his thumb along her forehead and squeezing her hand.

"I am sorry," Lailisse sobbed, "I am so sorry Aversar."

"Nothing is your fault," He murmured softly. "None of this, I love you Lailisse. I love you."

A long, piercing cry reached them. From the space between Lailisse's legs came a shuddering gasp. And then a wail.

This child was conceived under a setting sun of dragons and born under the stars of a new year. And so she breathed.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

They named her Aila: Cold Wind and New Footsteps. They raised her jealously, reaching for her hand and hugging her close. She grew quickly, with a boundless energy and a deep curiosity. Aversar taught her to shoot and Lailisse taught her to wield her dagger so she would always defend herself. True to their past they showed sly smiles and stealth to her and the girl wondered at the bravery of her parents.

Lailisse suffered another miscarriage when Aila was one and a still birth when she was four, but she could now come back to her daughter. Her daughter who grew healthy and observant and quiet.

Aila grew strong for eleven years. Lailisse teased Aversar for his first gray hairs and he traced the outlines of her wrinkles. They convinced themselves all would be well.

But thieves are born for strife.

Lailisse heard them in the marketplace. She paid for two apples and snuck her hand out to claim a third before the merchant would notice. Then a voice reached her from somewhere in the crowd.

"Lailisse Branton and Aversar Gjarsen, a Breton and a Nord. Would have come here from Skyrim some twenty years ago."

Lailisse half turned her head, enough so she could see the chainmail the soldiers wore. She heard their interrogee answer,

"Yes, cottage up the mountain path. Lailisse and Aversar, good people. They come down now and again with their daughter to buy supplies." Lailisse twisted as the soldiers turned to survey the crowd. She skipped away from them on light feet and then turned from the market, moving away from Fahrun, to the mountain path.

Aila was crouched in the front garden with a handful of flowers and stones. She was peering into a jar with a lightning bug flickering inside.

"Aila!" Lailisse called when she saw her daughter, "where is your father?"

"Around the back-" Lailisse did not let her answer, she grabbed her wrist and pulled her up the porch steps. She threw the door open, pounded on the back wall of the house and screamed.

"Aversar!" Then she ran into the bedroom, tucked a small leather pouch into Aila's hand.

Aversar burst in, staring wildly at the two of them. "What is it?" He cried, "Lailisse what's happened?"

"Soldiers, in the city!" She barked and thrust a dagger at her daughter. "Take this, if anyone comes at you stab them until they lie still! Go, get out of here!"

What?" Aila didn't budge when Lailisse pushed her toward the door. "Mother wait what about-"

" _Go_ Aila!" She cried, "Do not _ever_ come back here!" Aila still didn't move. Swearing Lailisse grabbed her by the arm and yanked her outside, growing still at the clank of armor down the road.

"They're coming," Aversar murmured behind them. He bent down in front of Aila. "You must go, my daughter, do as your mother says. Run and do not stop." He wrapped his arms around her, and Lailisse embraced them both, fighting back the sobs bubbling in her chest.

He broke away first and held Lailisse to help her unwind. Aila stared at them as they stepped back and looked toward the road.

"Go, Aila! We will see you again, I swear upon every Aedra and Daedra in our realm! Now please go, tell _no one_!"

Aila took a shuddering step backward then turned and fled. Her small dark form disappeared into the trees, Aversar put his arms around Lailisse.

Lailisse put her hand over her mouth and fought against the tears strangling her. She watched the place where Aila had gone. "She cannot be linked to us, I will never let her suffer that danger. Now come." Lailisse tugged him in the opposite direction, higher into the mountain.

"What do we do?" He asked as he followed her off the path and into the trees.

"We do what thieves do best," Lailisse whispered, molding into the forest and the mountain and Nirn itself. "We disappear."

 **The End**

 **Author's Note:** _Hi there, thanks for sticking around this long! I will be writing Aila's story so there will be some installments after this._

 _Find Book 2 here:_ _s/11896433/1/Wind-Chaser-Chronicles-Silver-Years_

 _Thanks for reading and have a good one_

 _Grace_


End file.
